Why Puzzles are Awesome for Mental Health

It’s been a hectic day in the office, and it’s left you mentally drained and exhausted. As much as you’re pushing yourself to do your best, too much stress is never good for the body and mental health. Even when you’re finally home and ready for bed, it may take a lot of winding down before you’re calm enough to drift off to sleep.

Here’s a method of winding down that encompasses several benefits on mental health: solving puzzles.

We know what you’re thinking. “Wouldn’t that get me worked up again?” Not exactly. Puzzles such as word searches, crosswords and Sudoku are highly recommended by doctors to keep your stress levels at bay, thereby improving your mental health. One key reason is that it allows you to focus on only one thing. While multi-tasking puts the frontal lobe of your brain under stress, single-tasking through good and engaging puzzles eliminates that stress. Additionally, if you find puzzles fun, here’s the science behind it:

Why do we love crossword puzzles and why are people addicted to sudoku? That’s what a huge bit of the cortex is primed to do — to spot [patterns] — and once we spot them we can assimilate them into our pyramid of knowledge and build more layers of strategy, and knowing how to do that makes us incredibly successful at controlling the world. – Daniel Bor, Neuroscientist

That’s right. Feeling in control when you’re “worrying for two” is indeed a remarkable feat, so why not give it a go! We’ve actually prepared a word search for you to have some fun with. Below are 17 keywords related to mental wellness. Can you find them? Leave your answers in the comment section below!

Puzzle created by Neeuro

Additionally, if you didn’t have enough with the last word search, have a go at this one to sharpen your mind and mental health. Find six hidden words in the picture below:

Not too hard wasn't it? We sure hope you enjoyed these mind-stimulating word puzzles! Let's continue working towards a healthy and active mind!

Using the latest technology, combined with our knowledge of how important cognitive development is, we also foresee future use cases in augmented/virtual reality and phobia management. Neeuro works globally with partners such as training providers, technology system integrator and schools to benefit children. Using modern solutions for cognitive training, cognitive skills such as attention and memory are emphasized and honed. NeeuroFIT aims to improve every child’s academic success via better learning outcomes.

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